This publication has been discontinued on July 19, 2011.
Research Overview
Current Market Conditions Favor Top-tier Outsourcers
The increasing demand for inbound services and complex customer care services in the outsourced contact center market is creating revenue generation opportunities for larger providers that are capable of offering a more comprehensive and sophisticated range of services. Alternatively, vendors providing lower-end services are likely to find it increasingly challenging to sustain their position in the market due to downward pricing pressure and declining demand for outbound services. Concentration of revenue among top-tier outsourcers is likely to continue in the future due to rapid industry consolidation and larger multiyear deals. The top-tier participants possess the consulting and integration expertise necessary for complex end-to-end business process outsourcing and the innovative skills to differentiate themselves in a highly competitive market.
This Frost & Sullivan research analyzes the key trends in the North American outsourced contact center market. In addition to the important drivers and challenges, the study offers revenue forecasts for inbound and outbound services, the multimedia and voice mediums, and vertical markets. This assists participants in understanding the potential growth areas and formulating their business strategies accordingly.
Outsourcers See Increased Opportunities in RightShoring
Offshoring of outsourced contact center operations continues to gain popularity in North America. However, the largest and most successful outsourcers realize that the decision to conduct operations offshore is a client-driven decision and are including RightShoring or BestShoring into their product offering. This encourages clients to be more selective while sending customer service operations offshore.
"RightShoring follows the logic that distinct types of interactions are best suited for particular locales and regions," says the analyst of this research. "Top-tier providers, therefore, advise their clients to offshore only transactions that are fairly well-defined and routine." For example, while India is regarded as the ideal offshore site for technical support queries, the more sales-oriented interactions either remain in North America or are sent to the Philippines where the service culture resembles that of the United States.
Customer Self-service Applications Provide New Growth Opportunities
While phone-based support remains the largest contributor to revenue for contact center outsourcers, the inclusion of self-service applications, particularly among the top-tier providers is an upcoming trend. The availability of high quality speech recognition engines is expected to drive the uptake of self-service applications. Customer acceptance of the self-service methods is also likely to increase as speech technologies become more widely deployed in interactive voice recognition systems.
"While some outsourcers have embraced speech and are promoting it heavily, other providers are taking a `just in time approach and offering the technology only when clients demand it," observes the analyst. Once self-service is established in the outsourced contact centers market, it is expected to provide a low cost alternative to the offshoring of routine queries.
Frost & Sullivan Growth Partnership Service
Based on extensive and in-depth research, real-world consulting work, and new theories tested in hundreds of companies across many industries, Frost & Sullivan has evolved its Growth Partnership Services (GPS) program that provides established and emerging firms with powerful growth visions. Moving beyond token mission statements, GPS provides an actionable vision to growth consulting partners by illustrating how key intelligence and strategic research based on defined goals can guide day-to-day behavior and overall company direction. The foundation of Frost & Sullivans GPS includes:
- Assisting companies to reach their full potential in the core business
- Providing growth strategies to help companies expand into related businesses
- Preemptively redefining the core business during market turbulence
- Applying the Frost & Sullivan framework to identify and address common mistakes resulting from misaligned corporate strategies
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To maximize the potential for growth within a firms internal and external environment, Frost & Sullivan consultants can facilitate the creation of strategic programs that deliver improved market success. Frost & Sullivans strengths lie in combining strategic understanding with market expertise and applying these with absolute commitment to its clients growth.
Benefits of this Service
Actionable Research into Market Trends
This research service analyzes key trends that drive and challenge growth in the North American outsourced contact center markets. It provides valuable insights into important developments that are shaping the future of the market. This enables participants to refine product and market strategies and exploit the emerging opportunities in contact center outsourcing. This study includes analysis of offshore services that are directed toward North American customers.
Emerging Opportunities in the Outsourced Contact Center Market
This study reveals the emerging opportunities for service providers in business process outsourcing, inbound sales services, and self-service applications. Such an analysis assists participants in increasing revenues by creating a more compelling value proposition.
Table of Contents
1 MARKET OVERVIEW
- Summary of Major Findings
- Market Overview
- Market Trends
- Offshore Trend Continues
- Challenges
- Drivers
- Restraints
2 MARKET ANALYSIS
- Market Forecasts
- Revenue Forecasts
- Percent of Revenues by Application
- Percent of Revenues by Inbound Versus Outbound Service
- Percent of Revenues by Inbound Versus Outbound Sales
- Percent of Revenues Inbound Versus Outbound
- Percent of Activities by Contact Medium
- Live Versus Automated Interactions
- Percent of Revenues by Vertical Market
- Pricing Analysis
3 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
- Market Share Analysis
- Competitive Analysis
- Market Share
- Strategies and Awards
- Growth Strategies
- 2005 Awards
List of Figures
Chapter 1
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Impact of Top Ten Industry Challenges (North America), 2005-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Industry Drivers Ranked in Order of Impact (North America), 2005-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Market Restraints Ranked in Order of Impact (North America), 2005-2011
Chapter 2
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Unit Shipment and Revenue Forecasts (North America), 2000-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Percent of Revenues by Application (North America), 2003-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Revenues by Inbound Customer Service/Help Desk vs. Outbound Customer Maintenance (North America), 2003-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Percent of Revenues by Inbound Order Taking and Sales vs. Outbound Sales and Telemarketing (North America), 2003-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Percent of Revenues by Inbound versus Outbound (North America), 2003-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Percent of Activities by Type of Contact Medium (North America), 2003-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Percent of Revenues by Automated Systems vs. Live Interaction (North America), 2003-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Percent of Revenues by End-User Type (North America), 2003-2011
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Pricing Methods Offered by Major Market Participants (North America), 2004
Chapter 3
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Competitive Structure (North America), 2004
- Outsourced Contact Center Services Market: Outsource Provider Profile by Tier (North America), 2004
- Outsourced Contact Center Services: Market Share of Major Market Participants (North America), 2004
